Techniques for incorporating design elements in a fabric product

ABSTRACT

Techniques disclosed in application relates to incorporating design element during manufacturing stage of a fabric thereby enabling the design element to form hem of a finished fabric product such as bedding sheets, pillow cases, shams etc. A method comprising: constructing one or more jacquards at one or more positions on fabric manufacturing machine for controlling yarn. The jacquard controls the yarn passing through it independently from rest of warp yarns of the fabric manufacturing machine during weaving process. The yarns drawn through the jacquard form their own designs over base fabric. The jacquard weaving portion is positioned along width of fabric; thereby forming continuous jacquard weaved design. Advantageously, the technique is simple, less time and labor intensive, cost effective and efficient mechanism for embedding designs in the fabric product.

CLAIM OF PRIORITY

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/697,273, filed Sep. 5, 2012 naming the inventor as Sri Hari Prasadh, the contents of which are fully incorporated herein.

FIELD

Techniques disclosed in application relates to incorporating design elements in fabric product such as bedding sheets, pillow cases, shams etc. More specifically, the application relates to techniques for incorporating design elements, which are embodied during or in conjunction with the manufacturing process of the fabric. The technique disclosed in the application thereby avoids separate manufacturing process for implementing design elements to produce finished fabric product. Advantageously, the technique is simple, less time and labor intensive, cost effective and efficient mechanism for embedding designs in the fabric product.

BACKGROUND

Generally, sheet sets consists of a flat sheet and a pair of pillow cases. The hem of a flat sheet and the pillow cases is about 4″ (inches) on the top and 0.5″ (inches) on the sides and bottom. But, these values may vary depending on the specification of the sheet. The top hem of the sheet is usually exposed along with the pillow cases in normal home bedding sheet sets. So, the design in the top hem has to be coordinated with the pillow case hems, duvet covers, shams, etc.

The design in the top hem may be a simple or complex, based on the required specification of the finished fabric product. Simple design is easily stitched by means of plain single or double needle in the sewing process. Complex designs are colorfully elaborated by means embroidery process. For example, subsequent to the fabric coming out of the weaving or other manufacturing machine, the design elements are incorporated by separate process by means of sewing or embroidery machines.

The manufacturing process includes the weaving of the constituent fabric sheets and further then an additional process producing design patterns in sheet sets tends to be labor intensive and time consuming process. This is also an expensive process at least by virtue of being a separate process (performed after the manufacture of the fabric) and by virtue of the design equipment (e.g., embroidery equipment) being expensive. Therefore, in addition to the type and quality of the fabric, the cost of the sheet set depends at least in part on the type of design implemented in the hem of the fabric.

SUMMARY

There is provided a method for incorporating a design element during manufacturing stage of a fabric, the method comprising constructing one or more jacquards at one or more positions on fabric manufacturing machine for controlling yarn, wherein the jacquard controls the yarn passing through the jacquard independently from rest of warp yarns of the fabric manufacturing machine during weaving process, wherein the yarns drawn through the jacquard form their own designs over base fabric, and wherein the jacquard weaving portion is positioned along width of fabric, thereby forming continuous jacquard weaved design. The jacquards are positioned in two or three rows on the fabric manufacturing machine where the design is repeated periodically along the width of the fabric. The jacquard is positioned on the fabric manufacturing machine approximately about 10″ from edge of the fabric to weave continuous design elements in the top hem which occupies approximately 4″ in the finished fabric product. The width and position of the design element can be varied based on the dimension of design in the fabric. Length of the finished fabric product is woven as the width of the fabric on the fabric manufacturing machine. The finished fabric product includes bed sheets, pillow cases, duvet covers and shams. The fabric manufacturing machines include cam and dobby weaving loom. Weave in the fabric includes but not limited to sateen and plain weave.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The technique presented herein is directed to a simple, less time and labor intensive, cost effective and efficient mechanism for embedding designs in a fabric product to provide variety and options. More preferably, the application is directed to techniques for incorporating decorative and design oriented elements collectively “design elements”, which are embodied during or in conjunction with the manufacturing process of the fabric. As discussed herein, in at least one embodiment, the design elements are embodied during or in conjunction with a “fabric stage.” As used here, a fabric stage may refer to one or multiple stages involved in the generation of a fabric product. Such stages may include, for example, the weaving stage or the knitting stage, where a fabric is created from, for example, yarn or other such ingredients.

Incorporating design elements during the fabric stage enables the decorative portion (as introduced by the design elements) to become the hem of a finished fabric product such as bed sheets, pillow cases, duvet covers, shams or the like after the fabric is cut and sown. The need for a separate manufacturing step (e.g., an embroidery step) for adding in the design elements is accordingly avoided, making it a cost effective and efficient mechanism for embedding designs in a fabric product. The top portion of a bed sheet is usually folded and hemmed in a slightly decorative manner to give the design element to the bed sheet.

The technique for incorporating design elements in a finished fabric product comprises constructing one or more jacquards (smaller) at different positions on the fabric manufacturing machines such as cam or dobby weaving loom or the like for controlling the yarn. The jacquards are usually about 0.5″ wide or less. In one aspect, the jacquards are placed in two or three rows on fabrics for curtains or upholstery items where the design is repeated periodically along the width of fabric. The jacquard controls the yarn (jacquard yarn) passing through it independently from rest of the warp yarns of the fabric manufacturing machine. The jacquard acts as an additional control element in the loom for jacquard yarns during weaving process. Thus the yarns that are drawn through the jacquard are capable of forming their own designs over the base fabric.

In an illustrative embodiment, when the fabric is woven, the jacquard weaving portion is designed to be at a particular position along the width of the fabric. When the fabric comes out of the loom, it will have a continuous jacquard weaved design (e.g., at about 10″ from one of the edges of the fabric). Subsequent to the weaving, and subsequent to any optional processing routines (e.g., to prepare the woven fabric for the cut-and-sew process of making a finished fabric product), the fabric is cut and then folded to be sewn in such a manner that the jacquard weaving portion is right at the top hem of the flat sheet.

The technique involves alignment and placement of the design elements during the manufacturing/weaving phase thereby ensuring that the placement causes the design element section to align itself, for example, as the decorative hem portion of a flat sheet when the fabric is simply folded and sewn. The placement and incorporation of the design element during the jacquard weaving is adjusted and positioned such that the fabric product coming out of the weaver is close to being a finished end-product. Thus the technique eliminates the need for a separate processing step where, for example, the fabric coming out of the weaver would then need to be put through an embroidering process to impart a design element in the hem portion of the sheet. Further, the different positioning of the jacquard provides design elements on top hem of the fabric product and is embodied in conjunction with the manufacturing process of the fabric. Thus the design that is incorporated in the weaving stage itself is carried forward to the end product giving it the look of an embroidered article but at a much lesser cost. Furthermore, the jacquard weaving process and the weaving loom are designed to be extremely consistent and intricate thus achieving very high quality levels compared to the embroidery machine.

Advantageously, the application provides various types of design such as geometric, text, floral, image etc. on top hem of the fabric product. As an option, it can provide bolder appearance of designs after dyeing process on using different color jacquard yarns. Further, it provides multicolor design by using multicolor jacquard yarns. It can also provide tonal effect on dyed fabric by using slightly different dye uptake properties of jacquard yarns.

An illustration of a purported construction of a bed sheet is as follows: A typical bed sheet weave is chosen as sateen or plain weave. Generally, the fabric is woven to a few inches wider than the final finished garment for further cutting and sewing process to form the hem. Bed sheet has a desirable size of 90″ length by 108″ width with a 4″ hem. Before cutting it would be around 100″ length by 110″ width for 4″ top hem and 0.5″ side and bottom hem. In order to allow for the dimensional changes during different stages of dyeing and processing, the width of the fabric on the loom is calculated taking into considering those factors.

Now the required design element has to be in the top hem which is 4″ in the finished article. Hence the jacquard is positioned in such a manner on the cam or dobby weaving loom such that it is about 10″ from the edge of the fabric.

Henceforth, in the weaving process of fabric, a continuous design is woven on one side about 10″ from the edge of the fabric. After the weaving process, woven fabric is taken for the dyeing and/or finishing process. The dyed and/or finished fabric shrinks by a small margin which is determined by the specifications of the yarns and on the employed weaving technique. The dyed and/or finished fabric is cut in such a manner that the design element forms the 4″ of the top hem. It is also noted that, the width and position of the design element can be varied based on the dimension of design in the fabric. Thus, the design is incorporated in the weaving stage itself and carried forward to the end product giving the look of an embroidered fabric product at much less cost.

Thus by aligning the design elements during the weaving process along the width/length of the sheet, the woven fabric is converted to a sheet or a pillow case with one or more decorative hems simply through a fold/cut/sew process. In case of pillow cases, to utilize the weaving machine more effectively, two rows of jacquard are used. So, two pieces of pillow cases can be cut along the width of the fabric. This is determined by the width of the weaving loom and can be adjusted accordingly.

It is understood, however, that the use of sheet sets and other such examples is for the purpose of descriptive illustration only, and that the techniques discussed herein are applicable to incorporation of any form of additional features (e.g., embroidery, designs, patterns, etc.) during manufacturing (e.g., weaving, knitting, etc.) of fabric. Fabric, as used herein, may utilize any of or a combination of raw materials such as cotton, nylon, rayon, leather, silk, etc. Nothing in this disclosure is intended to limit the applicability of the techniques discussed herein to any particular type of fabric, manufacturing mechanism, or design type used within the fabric. 

I claim:
 1. A method for incorporating a design element during manufacturing stage of a fabric, the method comprising: constructing one or more jacquards at one or more positions on fabric manufacturing machine for controlling yarn, wherein the jacquard controls the yarn passing through the jacquard independently from rest of warp yarns of the fabric manufacturing machine during weaving process, wherein the yarns drawn through the jacquard form their own designs over base fabric, and wherein the jacquard weaving portion is positioned along width of fabric, thereby forming continuous jacquard weaved design.
 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the jacquards are positioned in two or three rows on the fabric manufacturing machine where the design is repeated periodically along the width of the fabric.
 3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the jacquard is positioned on the fabric manufacturing machine approximately about 10″ from edge of the fabric to weave continuous design elements in the top hem which occupies approximately 4″ in the finished fabric product.
 4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the width and position of the design element can be varied based on the dimension of design in the fabric.
 5. The method according to claim 4, wherein length of the finished fabric product is woven as the width of the fabric on the fabric manufacturing machine.
 6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the finished fabric product includes bed sheets, pillow cases, duvet covers and shams.
 7. The method according to claim 5, wherein the fabric manufacturing machines include cam and dobby weaving loom.
 8. The method according to claim 1, wherein weave in the fabric includes but not limited to sateen and plain weave. 